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Nintendo president Doug Bowser: Switch is redefining what a console life cycle can look like

Doug Bowser, president of Nintendo of America, is a skilled communicator. And right now, his message is clear: The Switch is doing great, and new hardware will be announced when the time is right.

The Nintendo of America Twitter account didn’t stutter: This year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo was going to be about software, and the company wouldn’t address any speculation about a new and improved Switch console.

But Bowser, who as Nintendo’s sales and marketing vice president oversaw the Switch’s release in North America, is happy to share the Japanese company’s stance on advancing its technology.

“We are always looking at technology and how technology can enhance gameplay experiences. It’s not technology for technology’s sake,” Bowser tells The Washington Post. “It’s how specifically can technology enhance a gameplay experience. And then where do you apply that technology? Do you want to apply it on current existing hardware or platforms, or do you want to wait for the next platform? And then what’s the right gameplay experience with that? There’s a host of factors that goes into it, and it’s something we’re always looking at.”

Bowser gave this answer in response to a question about Bloomberg’s and other outlets’ reports about a Switch hardware upgrade, confirming long-standing rumors as well as some eager Nintendo fans waiting for the company to compete in technology again. Bloomberg reported that Nintendo plans for this upgraded Switch as soon as September, but the same report also said Nintendo may announce the console at E3, which did not happen.

Instead, Bowser would rather highlight the upcoming slate of games and the diversity of audiences they serve. It’s been Nintendo’s strength for decades. As Sony pushes fidelity in prestige storytelling and Microsoft pushes itself as a broad service provider, Nintendo is happy to continue its strategy of offering a wide suite of games to not just attract, but nurture and grow its audience.

“As we enter into our fifth year, Nintendo Switch really is redefining what a console life cycle can look like, and the vibrancy of that overall life cycle with a strong cadence of content,” Bowser said.

Nintendo’s sales strength makes it hard to argue against the company’s tactic, with more than 85 million consoles sold as of April. And according to the latest numbers from analyst firm NPD Group, the Switch remains America’s best-selling console in terms of revenue and units sold. Its games also have proven to have an evergreen life in the market, despite new releases from other publishers. “Mario Kart 8: Super Deluxe,” despite being a rerelease of a 7-year-old game, has no trouble staying among the top 10 games sold of every month in the last several years. If there is a need for a new Switch, it’s not being reflected in the continued and steady growth.

Despite the lack of hardware news, Nintendo has been expanding its business and has learned to lean on its powerful intellectual property, which of course include Pokémon and Mario. Both franchises have spearheaded the company’s efforts in the smartphone mobile gaming space. Nintendo is currently publisher of six mobile phone games, with a “Pikmin” project with Niantic Studios, the developer of the 2016 phenomenon “Pokémon Go,” on the horizon.

Bowser also highlighted Nintendo’s partnership with Universal Studios to build out theme parks around the world, with one already open in Japan and one each in Hollywood and Orlando

“We view ourselves as an entertainment company that is focused on very unique entertainment experiences,” Bowser said. “At the hub of that is our integrated hardware and software model, and that model has allowed us over decades to generate the characters, the deeply immersive worlds in the IP we all know and love so well, but we also know that there’s an opportunity to introduce more people to that IP now.”

Nintendo’s mobile games help them push their characters and story lines into countries where the Switch isn’t sold, Bowser said.

“The gameplay is fundamentally different than what you see on the Switch, but we’ve had 650 million unique downloads of our six games available today,” Bowser said, emphasizing that each game, from “Fire Emblem Heroes” to “Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp” all serve unique experiences in different genres.

“Our smart device strategy has allowed us to reach consumers in 164 countries already. We believe we’ve been able to broaden that audience of people who have now experienced Nintendo games, and we can bring them deeper into that integrated hardware software system in the deeply immersive games you and I know and play.”

He also highlighted Nintendo’s recent partnership with Lego to create toys based on the Mario worlds and characters, as well as the upcoming Mario animated film being created by Illumination, a studio under Universal Pictures.

“It’s unique to Nintendo, we’re very selective and very careful about who we partner with when it comes to licensing,” Bowser said. “We’ve had partnerships with Puma, with Color Pop cosmetics, with Levi’s, quality brands that really bring the uniqueness of Nintendo overall. So as an entertainment company, we’re looking for ways that we can introduce our properties to consumers in a very unique and differentiated way, and selectively, but then ultimately bring them back into that gaming experience. We believe that is the model going forward.”

“Selectively” seems to be a key word for Nintendo in how it deals with its partners as well as its community of fans. Nintendo has received widespread, passionate criticism of how it continues to pursue legal filings against fan-made do-it-yourself games and projects. Last year, as the pandemic was raging, “Super Smash Bros. Melee” esports tournaments tried to make do by using emulated files to prevent in-person competition, since the game is only available on the long-defunct GameCube console. Nintendo pulled support and shut it down.

“We do have a passionate community and we appreciate them very much, and we always want to be listening and understanding as we develop content going forward,” Bowser said. “There are times where we do need to reinforce our IP for reasons that I think are very critical. The protection of IP is very important when we think about our ability to continue to build on these properties, and we hope people will understand that is the reason we protect them the way we do.”

That said, Nintendo did make a major step recently in support esports programs. Last month, Nintendo announced its partnership with PlayVS, introducing “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate,” “Mario Kart 8” and “Splatoon 2” into varsity athletics programs starting this fall. PlayVS is an amateur program that works with high school athletic associations with games that include “Fortnite” and “League of Legends.”

Despite the Switch’s continued strong sales, Bowser said Nintendo also struggles with supply chain issues to create and ship consoles out. But he believes the last year has also proven out the resilience and vibrancy of the video games industry. It’s no breaking news that the games industry ballooned during the pandemic, and Bowser expects the industry has taken advantage of that momentum the best it can.

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“I think it’s an exciting time to be a part of the gaming business, I really do,” Bowser said. “We’re seeing more and more people engaged in it as part of their primary forms of overall entertainment. We’re seeing various ways they can engage, whether it’s on mobile platforms and on dedicated platforms such as the Nintendo Switch. It’s a vibrant industry going forward.”

Published : June 20, 2021

By : The Washington Post · Gene Park

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Metroid Dread revives the series prevalent sense of foreboding

Samus Aran, the first lady of video games, is running for her life. A lithe, practically invincible cyborg is chasing her through dark corridors as a cold, haunting synth-techno melody tinkles like muffled breathing.

The gameplay and atmosphere of “Metroid Dread” sets its mood in the same way the first game’s title dropped in 1986 with its foreboding title screen music. Samus Aran may be gaming’s first heroine, but the heroics give away to chilling unease. “Metroid” has always been about a lone woman, lost in the dark expanse of space and its unknown horrors. The series has always been a story about dread.

There’s a lot riding on the game, scheduled for release this October. It needs to serve a longtime, starving fan base who hasn’t seen a new original story in the series in 14 years. It needs to introduce the “Metroid” world to the generation or two who grew up without it. And another challenge: The series was so influential it helped spawn several excellent games that have modernized the “Metroid” formula and raised the bar, titles like “Hollow Knight” and “Ori and the Blind Forest.”

But longtime “Metroid” director and “Dread” producer Yoshio Sakamoto told The Washington Post he’s confident people will be bowled over right from the introduction.

“Once you see the opening, you’ll have everything you need to know about the game,” Sakamoto said through a interpreter. “It is really better than I imagined those 15 years ago when I had the idea for this and see it realized, it’s made me really, really satisfied.”

“Metroid” in 1986 created an entire genre of games copying its template: Large maps navigated by the tools you find during intense exploration, submerged in atmospheric, environmental storytelling. It was a game so big at the time, you needed to write down passwords to reload your progress, since the game predated “save state” technology. You could easily trace “Dark Souls” back to “Metroid,” with its carefully placed items, locked areas and deliberate backtracking.

It’s notable that Sakamoto retains his producer role for “Dread,” as he did with the 2017 3DS remake, “Metroid 2: Samus Returns” by Spain-based studio MercurySteam. MercurySteam is also developing “Dread.” Sakamoto is a lifer at Nintendo, having written the “Famicom Detective Club” series in Japan before moving on to help with “Metroid” in 1986. Sakamoto would later go on to direct “Super Metroid,” the Super Nintendo game held up not only as the genre standard, but one of the few video games that can be described as absolutely perfect.

“Metroid 2: Samus Returns” was released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2017, several months after the launch of the Nintendo Switch sucked up all the attention from the community. That game was also developed by MercurySteam, and while it was celebrated, a remake wasn’t going to be enough for “Metroid” fans hungry for another full game.

Moreover, MercurySteam’s first “Metroid” outing also rebranded the original game’s atmosphere to bombastic splendor. The original Game Boy release, in contrast, was a brooding descent to a planet’s core that only became more bleak as the game wore on. The 3DS remake, meanwhile, ended with an exploding base and soaring orchestral music. “Dread” also seems like a course correction, with much of the gameplay featured this week being far more understated and true to the series roots.

Sakamoto said he has been involved in “day-to-day” talks with MercurySteam. The studio previously worked on modernizing the “Castlevania” series with Konami before the Japanese publisher famously pivoted hard toward gambling machines over video games.

“We made use of cutscenes and 2D scenes that transitioned very seamlessly,” Sakamoto said of the “Samus Returns” remake. “With ‘Metroid Dread,’ we use those to maintain a sense of tension and also expressiveness. The story is very important in this game.”

Sakamoto is no stranger to horror. He was a big fan of horror stories when he wrote the “Famicom Detective Club” series, and it’s clear some of that influence remained in creating the later “Metroid” games. But he’s not keen on calling “Dread” a horror game.

“This isn’t part of the horror genre, although it may have seemed that way,” Sakamoto said. “It’s really about Samus encountering fear, but she stands against that fear, fights it and beats it.”

Sakamoto restated his commitment to Samus Aran – who earned the “first lady of video games” title because she was the first woman protagonist in a major title – and the series as a whole, despite more than a decade away.

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“What this game represents is a bit of a pause, or a start to something else,” Sakamoto said. “Nobody wants the ‘Metroid’ series to end. And we know ourselves that we don’t want that either.”

Published : June 18, 2021

By : The Washington Post · Gene Park

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The top highlights and takeaways from E3 2021

It spanned four days and produced far less excitement on the whole than past years, but there is still plenty to parse from this years all-virtual E3, the first held since 2019. Here are the standout moments and takeaways from E3 2021:

Evaluating E3′s future: Perhaps as notable as any announcements or reveals was what the showcase means for the future of E3 as the premier event on the game industry calendar. Take a quick survey of the Twitter accounts of most games journalists following E3′s conclusion and you’ll see the all-virtual event did not go over well. In particular, the event did not generate much excitement outside a handful of instances over four days.

The event dragged. There was confusion around what certain presentations would deliver. Monday was almost completely devoid of gaming news, even with Capcom’s event. The linear stream was a bit numbing overall, a stark contrast with in-person E3 events.

The dearth of news and game reveals is likely due to a double whammy from the pandemic. Covid-19 forced E3 online and muted the usual crowd reactions from in-person announcements. It also hindered developers working on their titles. Given that video game fans tend to be a tad critical (the original “Halo Infinite” contributed to a year-long delay as the developers reworked the look of the game) companies may not have thought their top titles, on which they’re depending for big returns in revenue, were ready for public scrutiny after a year of working from home or in otherwise compromised fashion.

As flat as the event felt, it’s hard to see this as any kind of dagger for E3′s future. In fact, the first major news delivered at this year’s E3 was that Los Angeles was preparing to host the event again in person next year. While E3 may not be as grand as it once was, with companies like Sony and EA shying away, there is still a critical mass to the event. Part of the reason there was so much criticism of the event over the past four days is because pretty much everyone in games media was focused on E3. Criticism isn’t a killer for a major event, irrelevance is.

Could E3 be better? Absolutely, and the first correction there is reconvening in person, which seems more or less solidified for 2022. Do people still care about E3 and the game news revealed during the event? It’s clear they do. Criticism of the event may be warranted, but expectations of its imminent demise should probably be curbed. Unless Microsoft and/or Nintendo suddenly decides it is done with the event, E3 seems likely to endure.

A big score for Summer Games Fest with “Elden Ring”: “Elden Ring,” the long-awaited collaboration between the creators of “Dark Souls” and “Game of Thrones,” didn’t debut at E3, but at Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest. While the concept of “Dark Souls but expansive” is simple to understand, pulling it off is a much harder trick. The excitement over the game doesn’t really stem from author George R.R. Martin’s involvement. Rather, it’s the promise of an expansion of the open-world ideas only really seen in the first “Dark Souls” game. In the end, “Souls” creator Hidetaka Miyazaki has proven to be a master blacksmith of the genre he created. That’s all you need to know to understand the excitement and relief new “Elden Ring” information delivered to fans.

Xbox excitement: Easily the early winner from the conference, Xbox made a point of showcasing its exclusive titles, particularly leveraging the acquisition of Bethesda Softworks and the rest of ZeniMax Media for $7.5 billion.

At E3 2019, in the midst of a major push for its subscription gaming service, Game Pass, Microsoft studio head Matt Booty sat in a green room in the basement of Microsoft Theater and discussed some of the keys to their strategy with The Post. Chief among them: Inventory. If you want to become the Netflix of gaming, you need to have the must-see exclusives that make customers want to subscribe.

In the years since, Xbox has added to its Game Pass offerings, most notably in a deal to make available EA’s games. What was missing were exclusives. Sony had been acquiring studios and placing a number of award-winning, must-play games behind a PlayStation paywall. Xbox had yet to do that.

Until now. With “Starfield,” alongside the newly introduced co-op vampire shooter “Redfall” and “Halo Infinite,” this was a flex for Microsoft’s exclusive catalogue. Microsoft is working to lower the barriers of entry for consumers with its recently announced console-less streaming strategy. It’s also working to entice gamers with impressive exclusive titles. The Xbox ecosystem looks more appealing now than ever before.

“Redfall” intrigue: After continuously pumping out updates to the “Fallout” and “The Elder Scrolls” franchises, Bethesda announced another major new game in addition to the upcoming “Starfield.” “Redfall” comes from Arkane Studios, the developer behind “Dishonored” and “Prey.” It features a group of diverse vampire slayers who use customizable weapons to take down the bloodthirsty villains. At the Microsoft-Bethesda joint presentation, we saw “Redfall” cutscenes with witty banter like: “Would you want to go back to normal?” “Not if I have to pay my student loans.”

While there is no end of vampire books, movies and games, the creative looks of the character design and the reputation of the studio behind “Redfall” have people buzzing with excitement.

Nintendo delivers a surprise for Metroid: “Metroid Dread” was a shocker, a long-rumored and canceled 2D Metroid game from the early aughts resurrected for the Switch era. Nintendo is the publishing house for so many beloved characters, and Samus Aran, the first lady of video games, has been away for far too long. The series has always struggled with sales, which may explain its absence for more than a decade. But it’s also the series that inspired, well, the “Metroid” genre of action adventure and game design. Even “Dark Souls” wouldn’t exist without “Metroid.” One can hope that “Metroid Dread” can finally give the series the respect it’s long deserved.

Nintendo understands what its fans want: Namely, more “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2” content and remasters of classic Japanese visual novel adventure game “Danganronpa,” plus a new “Shin Megami Tensei V.” A lot of what fans demanded got served up during Tuesday’s virtual event. We got a better look at some cutscenes in “Breath of the Wild 2,” saw Link swim through some rock and the camera pan out to an overview of the skies of Hyrule. Nintendo even dropped a release year: 2022.

Nintendo also satisfied fans of the “Persona” franchise with the “Shin Megami Tensei V” announcement that came with an extensive look at gameplay. It appears to be turn-based and allows players to recruit demons and fuse them, just like some of the other games did.

Let’s also not forget that “Mario Party Superstars” is coming in October, reviving a lot of classic minigames and allowing online multiplayer.

About that Switch Pro . . . : Despite hearing that Nintendo’s upgraded Switch console could be available as early as September, there was nary a mention of it during the Nintendo Direct at E3. We know other console makers have been struggling to meet demand in part due to a semiconductor shortage. Is it possible that’s delaying the release of the next Switch? Or was Nintendo just waiting for a less-crowded runway to make one of its biggest announcements of the year?

Avatar is coming, who’s excited?: Seriously, we’re asking. While the trailer looked good, featuring the kind of vibrant world you’d expect for the planet Pandora, there wasn’t much else to do but drink in the visuals. We know it’s an open world game. What we don’t know is who is clamoring for this game when the James Cameron movie debuted 12 years ago. After the Ubisoft showcase on Saturday, its new tactical co-op alien shooter, “Rainbow Six: Extraction,” was trending on Google. “Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora” was not.

Mario + Rabbids: Ubisoft and Nintendo partnered to make the first game in the series, which was enjoyed by some but went unnoticed by many. Nintendo is continuing to let Ubisoft developers work with its intellectual property, dressing up rabbit-like Rabbids as Princess Peach and Luigi, fighting in space alongside Mario and his usual crew.

Guardians of the Galaxy vs. Avengers: Square Enix did not generate much good will with comic book fans with its “Avengers” game. Will it fare better with “Guardians of the Galaxy”?

Square Enix spent most of its showcase showing off cinematics and gameplay from the upcoming title, set for an October 26 release, and there were a few encouraging signs. For starters, the heroes look a bit more like their counterparts in the Marvel Cinematic Universe than the Avengers, who most recently looked like this after a new release of skins for that game. Second, Square Enix seems to have gotten the vibe of the franchise correct, with whimsical, wisecracking dialogue, frenetic action sequences and a soundtrack of hits from the 1960s and 70s.

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Also notable was the different play format from “Avengers,” where players select a different hero per mission and your teammates played along as NPCs in the campaign mode. In “Guardians,” players take the role of group leader Star Lord, shooting and rocket-boosting around the map while ordering your shipmates to engage foes via a command wheel interface. Why is that so notable? As the Post’s Gene Park noted on stream, “Avengers” faced a challenge of trying to balance the powers of superheroes ranging from the godlike Thor and Hulk to Hawkeye, a dude with a bow and good aim. It made it seem strange since those characters are not at all balanced in the MCU, but they needed to be for a co-op combat game. The result was a weak-feeling Thor and Hulk. Simply, it was not fun. (Hulk smash? More like, Hulk inflict mild HP damage. Boo.)

A Call of Duty challenger?: Ever since the Battlefield franchise returned to its historical roots and Infinity Ward rebooted “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare” in 2019, the latter has pretty much dominated the first-person war sim space. That may be changing with the impending release of “Battlefield 2042.” EA’s DICE showed off a first look at the gameplay during the Xbox/Bethesda showcase and the game looked jaw-dropping good. While all we have are visuals at this point, a new in-combat interface that allows players to tinker with their loadouts without backing out to a menu looks like an exciting upgrade. Add in the series’ usual destructible buildings, evolving terrain and changing weather (now including a tornado) and there are some clear differences with Call of Duty. “Battlefield 2042” releases October 22, 2021.

Published : June 17, 2021

By : The Washington Post · Mike Hume, Shannon Liao, Gene Park

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Cyberpunk 2077 returns to the PlayStation store June 21 – with a warning for PS4

Embattled role-playing video game “Cyberpunk 2077” will return to the PlayStation store on June 21, Sony and developer CD Projekt Red confirmed to The Washington Post. The game was originally pulled from the store last December, and both PlayStation and Xbox offered refunds to those who purchased it for the buggy and sometimes unplayable experience.

However, Sony cautioned that users will still have performance issues with the PlayStation 4 version of “Cyberpunk 2077,” and playing the game on PS4 Pro or the PS5 will give “the best experience.” It added that CD Projekt Red is continuing to improve stability across all platforms. The Polish gaming company confirmed the news on its site but declined further comment.

The news was first reported by Axios. Last week, PlayStation head Jim Ryan said in an exclusive interview with the outlet that “Cyberpunk 2077” was originally delisted to prevent players from having a bad experience.

When it launched last November, the game was plagued with disruptive bugs on console versions, including floating trees inside buildings, and a gun tutorial with a dummy target that was glitched to become unbeatable, unless players quit the game and reloaded a new save. Since the game’s launch, CD Projekt Red has promised fixes and presented a timeline of when players could expect updates.

The game had been one of the most anticipated titles of 2020. Hype built around movie star Keanu Reeves, who plays a key character in the game and made a splashy, endearing appearance at E3 2019. CD Projekt Red had also established a lot of trust from gamers with the success of “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt,” which was praised for its expansive world and creatively written quests. That game even spawned a popular Netflix show.

But developers for “Cyberpunk” later admitted they had focused on building the game’s quality out on PC and new consoles, while neglecting PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the title. Co-founder Marcin Iwiński apologized in a video published in January 2021. To date, the team is still working on fixing the game, with updates stretching into 2022, despite expressing in interviews that they were tired and ready to work on something new.

Beyond technical glitches that hurt performance, a video game journalist reviewing the game suffered seizures while playing it. The game at first did not include any photosensitivity warnings. It also came under fire for featuring a poster that fetishized a trans character, and for stereotyping gangs of color as animalistic and savage. Last year, CD Projekt Red business development senior vice president Michał Nowakowski said in an interview with CNN, the depictions are “nothing that will be controversial, to be perfectly honest. There’s nothing that should shake people up, in my personal opinion.”

Published : June 16, 2021

By : The Washington Post · Shannon Liao

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Will you like Nintendos Game Builder Garage? Do you like school?

In “Game Builder Garage,” Nintendo made a game in which you make games. In theory, that sounds fun. In practice, it feels like heading back to basic computer science class and learning how to program with a new language that will never be applicable on other platforms.

The Nintendo Switch title, which debuts June 11 and retails for $29.99, does a good job of making the basics of programming accessible to a large audience, but it falls flat in later lessons. There’s joy in the game, just not as much as expected.

“Game Builder Garage” features seven major lessons, led by a high-pitched and excitable blue cursor named Bob. Bob teaches players how to build several types of games, and he’s an extremely likable dot from the get-go. Charmingly, he makes sounds of disappointment when things don’t go his way – basically, anytime he sees a bit of programming that still needs work. Lesson one is a simple game of tag, aptly named Tag Showdown. It’s followed by lessons that have players building a game about rolling a ball to a goal called On a Roll, an alien blasting title called Alien Blaster, a running platformer called Risky Run, an escape room game titled Mystery Room, a game about racing called Thrill Racer and finally, a three-dimensional game called Super Person World. After players complete the first lesson, they’re free to design their own games without following a template. From there, they can share their work with their friends.

Nintendo has dubbed the individual building blocks for the games “Nodons,” a word that probably comes from the word “node.” There are dozens of Nodons inside Game Builder Garage, one for each game component, including the player’s avatar. There’s a way to utilize every aspect of the Nintendo Switch, from a Nodon that controls the Switch’s infrared camera to a Nodon for motion controls. The Nodons have plenty of personality; they’re full of compliments every time you program a game successfully.

In the later lessons, like Risky Run, Mystery Room and Thrill Racer, the game has players programming logic and changing the angle of the in-game camera without fully explaining what is happening. I completed all seven lessons but still didn’t gain an understanding of why one Nodon has to be summoned and connected to another Nodon, and where on the Y axis it should be positioned. Without gaining full knowledge of why Nodons go where they go, it won’t be possible to code really special and unique games in free programming.

That’s where Alice comes in. Unlike the overly hype Bob, Alice is a lower-pitched pink cursor who challenges players after each lesson with a checkpoint, a series of puzzles that must be completed to advance to the next lesson. These puzzles are tougher than the lesson itself and Alice will chime in if you get stuck. She’ll suggest you check out her guide, where she’ll take you into a lesson that looks similar to Bob’s but goes slightly more in-depth and shows you different tips and tricks. I found this to be the most helpful and informative part of the game. Still, I rarely used it because I preferred to solve all the puzzles without any help.

The game shines when it teaches users to think like a game developer. Some of Nintendo’s game development magic is present in the lessons. For instance, you’re asked to code a cheat into a racing game to make it more fun, or to program a crate to break in three hits rather than just one, to give the experience more oomph. There’s also satisfaction each time you’re able to successfully program a game. “Game Builder Garage” teaches several different game genres, and I found the action themed Risky Run and Alien Blaster in particular to be quite fun to program and playtest.

Some of the lessons teach interesting and insightful ways to make games better: Adding text to denote a finish line in a race, adding a retry button for fans to replay the game and designing a room for playing tag to have curved edges so that a player won’t get caught in the corners.

While you are able to add assets into the game, they have to be drawn by the player. Once implemented, these drawn assets appear in the game as awkward-looking rectangles, ill-fitted to their surroundings. I also found the variety of items you can summon to be limited. Mermaids, aliens and turnips are some items you can summon, but no Nintendo Switches, and no playable characters beyond blocky people, cars and UFOs. I can see a lot of space-themed games coming out of “Game Builder Garage.” Role-playing games, not so much.

The sad thing is, you’re not really learning how to make games in “Game Builder Garage.” Mostly, you’re just going through the motions. My guess is that very few people will come out of “Game Builder Garage” able to program creatively in the free programming mode, and those that do may have needed to sink dozens of hours into learning how Nodons work. With that level of dedication, the fans of this game likely have the aptitude to code complex games on Unity, Roblox or another game engine.

In one puzzle I needed to change the slope of a platform to get an apple to roll down, completing the checkpoint challenge. I found the slope through trial and error eventually, but I didn’t fully understand the math afterwards. In some ways, the game reminded me of learning languages through Duolingo. I can memorize vocabulary quickly, but I’m unlikely to be fluent after a few lessons.

In that way, “Game Builder Garage” is more of a supplement than a full education. The game excels at giving people a small taste of programming, but the game’s pupils will have to seek unabridged coding lessons elsewhere. It’s hard to give the game a final score in its current form, because what people design in free programming and post online will ultimately add to the game’s potential.

Published : June 11, 2021

By : The Washington Post · Shannon Liao

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Xbox is making a streaming device for Game Pass. Thank Perfect Dark Zero.

One day in December 2014, Kareem Choudry – now the corporate vice president of Microsoft cloud gaming – and his team walked into Xbox chief Phil Spencers office with an Xbox One console. On that device, they booted up “Perfect Dark Zero,” an Xbox 360 launch title.

This moment sparked a fundamental change in how Microsoft and Xbox approached the games business. Xbox games could be played on any future iteration of the console. Now, a parallel question is being answered: What if Xbox games can be played on other devices as well?

On Thursday, Spencer announced Microsoft is building its own game-streaming device and working with TV manufacturers to embed Xbox Game Pass into smart sets with no extra hardware except a controller. Spencer also said the company was determining new subscription tiers for Xbox Game Pass. This strategy is similar to one employed by Google’s Stadia and Amazon’s Luna services, though both are struggling in the market. Microsoft, on the other hand, has its established history and brand trust among the core gaming audience to back it up.

It’s been a dramatic shift for the company, away from expensive consoles as the flagship gaming product and toward making the monthly Game Pass subscription service accessible to more consumers. While admitting there’s a long road ahead, Spencer said that “only this company, only Microsoft, can bring to bear the global scale, the vast wellsprings of technical innovation, the financial resources, and the deep, decades-long legacy in video games required to truly bring the joy and community of gaming to everyone.”

Within a few weeks, Xbox’s cloud gaming service on the browser will open up to all members of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, supported by Google Chrome, Apple’s Safari and Microsoft’s own Edge browsers. Microsoft is also keen to center its promise of at least one new first-party game offered in Game Pass every quarter. The company is about to flex its acquisition of Bethesda Softworks studios at its upcoming E3 showcase, which will surely support this effort.

It’s notable that Spencer’s recent remarks and marketing from Xbox in the last year barely touch on the console. His focus is the same as it has been in the last year or so: expanding Xbox Game Pass as a service beyond the console. Although much of the consumer conversation around games continues to focus on box versus box, Spencer hasn’t wavered. Xbox is becoming a service beyond a line of hardware.

This effort actually started in the early days of the Xbox One, with Choudry and one engineering team’s commitment to software compatibility. Music and video, Choudry thought, had already crossed the digital divide thanks to cloud services and subscription models. He asked himself: “What would it take to game without a console or a PC?” The idea was to make it so phones that could previously only play Angry Birds could now also play every Halo game.

Choudry, a 23-year veteran at Microsoft, helped ensure the Xbox 360 was backward compatible with the first console. In an April interview with The Washington Post, he reminded that Xbox was always using the cloud, even back then. That effort laid the foundation for Microsoft’s current strategy. Now, save data from Xbox 360 games from 2009 can be downloaded and revisited by longtime users on newer Xbox consoles.

“We set the consumer expectation, and saved games just kind of worked,” Choudry said. “And that was where it started. The work we did to allow the transfer of Xbox 360 games to the cloud is manifested in ways that I never would have thought possible years later.”

When Spencer took over the gaming sector of Microsoft after the 2013 launch of the Xbox One, Choudry had a proposal. Choudry asked for one year and 25 of the smartest people in the division to figure out a broad strategy for compatibility across the generations. This included not only the effort to retro-engineer a newer machine to play older games on significantly different hardware, but also starting a conversation with game creators on how to do this and keep their games available in perpetuity. There were webs of legal and contractual bureaucracy that the team continues to navigate today.

“We had to write an emulator that could translate between those two operating systems and hardware in a way that was transparent for the games,” Choudry said. “Games push hardware more so than any other different type of computing. It’s real time. You’ve got 33 milliseconds to get that 30 Hz frame out, and if you miss it, gamers know and they let you know very, very fast.”

After that pivotal moment with “Perfect Dark Zero,” the compatibility effort broadened and eventually looped in the rest of Microsoft, with engineering teams trying to get older games running on 1990s-based microprocessors to more recent applications. This included making sure that any changes in hardware over the years wouldn’t disturb the original game experiences, only enhance them, if possible. Choudry said some games would see explosions act differently than they used to, which wasn’t going to be good enough for players.

“If you just think in terms of building blocks, we started to wonder how we’re going to move this experience into the cloud. It was the same concept,” Choudry said. “I took a lot of the same leadership and same expertise and validations skills and said, ‘Okay, now I want you to think of that game design to run natively in a user’s home, to run it in a data center on the other end of a network.’ I would never have predicted that the work we were doing on compatibility and the preservation of games would actually enable us to make a much faster leap.”

Published : June 11, 2021

By : The Washington Post · Gene Park

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Mastering Sigma, the maestro of ‘Overwatch,’ according to two pros

EntertainmentApr 14. 2021

By The Washington Post · Teddy Amenabar, Jhaan Elker

Sigma, “Overwatch’s” brooding astrophysicist, commands the gravity around him to dominate an opposing team. He’s a repressive off-tank with a well-rounded set of abilities that allow him to break off from his team and disrupt the tempo of a fight.

The Washington Post spoke with two of the Overwatch League’s best Sigma players, Indy “Space” Halpern of the Los Angeles Gladiators and Gi-Cheol “Cr0ng” Nam the Guangzhou Charge, about how to make the most of the tyrannical Overwatch hero – taking your competitive play to the next level. Here’s what they said.

– – –

Be aggressive. Better yet, be oppressive.

Players controlling Sigma have a tendency to stick with their main tank, but Sigma is intended to push the fight forward on his terms. Find your own angle on the enemy team, the pros said. Sigma is at his best when he separates from his team and fires at the enemy from another position, forcing the opponent to contend with two points of attack.

Sigma can deal serious damage, heal himself and shield against incoming fire. Use your independence to flank your opponents and disrupt the pace of the match.

“Sigma’s job is to shut down the other team, to be as oppressive as possible,” Space said. “You want to be the one taking control of the game.”

Crong said Sigma players have to be selfish. Sigma’s power comes from his ability to control, or conquer, a certain part of the map. Press forward, alternating between Sigma’s shield and kinetic grasp, to create space for your team or to push back an enemy advance.

– – –

Spam your hyperspheres. Play the angles.

Sigma floats around the map twirling around a pair of hyperspheres, like some twisted fidget-spinner. The little balls of gravity can bounce off walls and implode, providing the hero a reliable and endless medium-range burst fire.

Cr0ng and Space suggest sending Sigma’s pair of projectiles into a corner or a chokepoint to pressure opponents waiting just out of sight. It’s one of the few abilities in the game that can ricochet off the walls. So take advantage of it as you try to gain ground.

– – –

Don’t break your barrier. It’s one of many tools.

When Sigma charges into a team fight, he can propel his floating barrier forward and provide some cover. It’s a key part of Sigma’s aggressive playstyle, but don’t rely on his shield. Recall your barrier, and switch to kinetic grasp to take incoming fire and recharge the shield, the pros said. The two abilities work in tandem. Using one allows the other to recover.

You never want to use Sigma’s barrier until it breaks down. Or, as Space said: “You don’t ever want to get caught with your pants down.” Always have a trick up your sleeve and manage Sigma’s abilities wisely.

– – –

Make the most of ‘the rock’

Sigma’s accretion, known simply as “the rock,” compresses debris into a boulder hurtling toward the enemy. It has become Overwatch’s equivalent of a three-point shot, which has led to many a flashy combos built for the highlight reel.

Do not lob Sigma’s accretion for a cross-map catapult; the pros suggest using his ability for simple crowd control when the enemy is on top of you. Wait until your opponent runs out of abilities to dodge or parry and then let it rip. The best “rocks” don’t miss.

– – –

Throw a barrier before using Sigma’s ultimate

Sigma’s strongest ability, Gravitic Flux, launches enemies sky-high and slams them to the ground, but the move leaves him temporarily defenseless as he sets up his aim.

Space said to shoot a shield barrier into the sky shortly before using Gravitic Flux; it can protect against enemy fire. It’s not a surefire solution, but the shield could protect you against a quick draw from an enemy McCree or Widowmaker. “If you’re going to do anything, make sure you do that every time,” Space said.

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Tencent bets billions on gamers with more fans than NBA stars

EntertainmentApr 09. 2021A worker walks past an installation reading “Follow Our Party Start Your Business” in front of the Tencent Holdings Ltd. headquarters in Shenzhen, China, on March 20, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Qilai Shen.

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Zheping Huang

At the height of the global pandemic in October, more than 6,000 people packed into a new 25-acre stadium in Shanghai to watch one of the world’s biggest sporting contests. Another 45 million tuned in online, about as many as watched the six games of the 2020 NBA Finals on TV. The matchup was the League of Legends world championship — a watershed moment for competitive gaming and its overseer Tencent Holdings Ltd.

Asia’s most valuable company has set its sights on a billion-dollar esports arena that already boasts more regular viewers than the National Basketball Association or the National Football League. Tencent has placed pro gaming at the heart of its ambition to dominate online entertainment, from mobile games and video streaming to social media. It’s betting that esports will entice and retain the internet audiences it needs and eventually grow to something approaching the $10-billion-plus NBA.

Key to realizing that vision is Tencent’s blockbuster League of Legends battle arena title and TJ Sports, the outfit it set up in 2019 to organize and promote the game’s competitive play in China. While total revenue in TJ’s first two years just surpassed 1 billion yuan ($152 million), the fledgling company intends to create original content such as reality shows and livestream channels around its star players and teams, and peddle merchandise.

“Esports is like the Super Bowl, which isn’t just a sport event but also a vehicle of art and entertainment,” said TJ co-Chief Executive Officer Leo Lin. “We are going for the direction of connecting esports with our games and wider entertainment business.”

Esports show how Tencent thinks about its long-term future. The world’s largest games publisher has invested billions of dollars in talent agencies, streaming sites and tournament organizers to create the infrastructure necessary to turn pro gaming from a niche into an instrumental part of its growth strategy. TJ expects to double overseas viewership as soon as this year and aims to do the same with media rights revenue from outside China.

“Tencent’s investing in esports for the long haul, because it breaks the boundaries between different businesses from licensing to sponsorships and ticket sales,” said Chundi Zhang, a gaming analyst with Ampere Analysis. “Especially with competition for attention intensifying and user acquisition costs growing in the gaming market itself, esports still has huge untapped potential.”

Shenzhen-based Tencent, which operates some of China’s largest Netflix-style and e-book services as well as producing tentpole films and games, already knows how to monetize popular content.

Competitive play in Tencent-published games like Honor of Kings and PUBG Mobile enhances the longevity of the firm’s biggest cash cows and feeds its content divisions. That in turn helps portfolio companies like Huya Inc. and Bilibili Inc. Apart from reality shows and music festivals, Tencent last year debuted a drama series called CrossFire, which tells the story of a wheelchair-bound teenager trying to make it as a pro gamer in the online shoot-em-up by that name.

But esports is also a key gateway to tapping foreign audiences for Tencent, which hasn’t struck gold on any app quite like ByteDance’s video sensation TikTok. The company reaches most people outside China through games like PUBG Mobile — among the most popular mobile esports titles in Southeast Asia — and League of Legends, which is regularly played by tens of millions worldwide.

Under TJ’s helm, the League of Legends Pro League (LPL) in China has become the world’s largest esports league by its sheer size: 17 teams compete in hundreds of face-offs every year, with the 2020 season garnering 100 billion views through live broadcasts and social content. The headline sponsor for the new season is Mercedes-Benz.

Each person attending the Shanghai spectacle was the winner of a 1-in-500 lottery. Producing the gathering took months of planning and TJ provided players with 100-page handbooks on virus prevention. When the clanging of digital swords wasn’t filling the air, Chinese rapper Lexie Liu and the League of Legends virtual K-Pop band rocked the stage in front of socially-distanced attendees. A 26-foot-tall dragon sculpture was lit up under the landmark Oriental Pearl TV Tower.

Broadcast rights for events like the one in Shanghai now bring in about 60% of TJ’s revenue, with the rest largely coming from sponsorship deals, said Lin, who also heads the China wing of Tencent-owned League of Legends maker Riot Games Inc. Much like Amazon.com’s Twitch, live streams of pro matches offer a revenue opportunity through virtual gift sales, and the goal is to also expand income from licensed merchandise, he added. Thinking along similar lines are e-commerce giants JD.com Inc. and Suning.com Co., both of which run teams competing in the LPL.

“We want to get closer to young people,” said JD Gaming manager Kong Lin. “JD has its roots in consumer electronics, so there’s a good synergy for us to do esports.”

Beijing has thus far shown a favorable attitude toward pro gaming, provided the games themselves have been approved and related content is free of excessive violence or political messaging. That’s allowed Tencent and its peers to explore multiple business avenues — including abroad.

In 2020, simultaneous viewership of the LPL outside China peaked at 310,000 on sites including YouTube and Twitch, which TJ intends to double before 2022’s end. Aiding that goal are the multi-language web shows it produces to capture the game’s memes and highlights, along with Tencent’s in-house streaming unit Trovo Live for the U.S. market. Much like real-world sports, all the action is visual and Tencent needs to only swap the commentary to localize League of Legends content.

Looking further ahead, TJ plans to organize the China league for other games in the same fantasy universe, Lin said. In February, the franchise’s mobile edition Wild Rift got the license for a commercial launch in China and the highly anticipated title recently became available for U.S. players to test. With most gaming now happening on mobile, that could prove to be the next big step in catalyzing interest and engagement.

“As a gamer myself, I’m always inspired when I see someone grow from a nobody to a big star,” Lin said. “I believe many fans love esports as a sport for that same reason.”

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E3 says Nintendo, Xbox among those committed to its free June virtual event

EntertainmentApr 07. 2021

By The Washington Post · Gene Park

The Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known as E3, returns June 12 as a virtual event, and its organizers say they’ve secured commitments from two of the three big platform holders, Nintendo and Xbox.

And after months of speculation whether the event would have an online paywall, the Entertainment Software Association said the event will be free to everyone. A press release also added the ESA will be “working with media partners globally to help amplify and make this content available.”

It’s not unlike the strategy employed by games industry emcee and personality Geoff Keighley, who last year during the height of the pandemic hosted the Summer Games Fest, which worked with enthusiast gaming sites like IGN.

Along with Nintendo and Microsoft, the ESA said it secured early commitments to participate from Capcom, Ubisoft, Konami, Take Two Interactive, Warner Bros. Games and Koch Media, with “more to come.” Sony, the other major gaming company, has not yet announced its plans regarding participating in E3, but has not been a part of the event since 2018.

The event will now run June 12 through 15, a change from its originally announced dates.

For at least the last two decades, the E3 show had been the premiere promotional destination for the games. In recent years, companies have held their own promotional online digital “events,” notably Nintendo with its popular “Direct” format on YouTube and other streaming platforms. Even large publishers like Square Enix have jumped onto the trend, creating highly-produced video press reveals.

The ESA revealed no additional information on what kind of format this year’s show would take.

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‘Outriders’ is a game too tasty, and too expensive, to stay online only

EntertainmentApr 07. 2021After its launch Thursday, “Outriders” was plagued with server problems so bad that the entire service went down for hours on Friday. MUST CREDIT: Image by Square Enix

By The Washington Post · Gene Park

“Outriders” is probably the most delicious looter game at launch to date.

There’s a potato chip-like crunchiness to the audio design, from the click-clacking of your gun reloads to your boots sloshing through the mud. Gunfire crackles like popcorn, and enemies explode in a fizzy blue mist, leaving the arena stickier than the floor next to the McDonald’s soda machines. Maybe I should eat before long sessions of “Outriders,” but why eat when this game offers so much tasty brain candy?

It’s not all empty calories either. Far from it, this is probably the most smartly designed looter game at launch because it keeps it simple. It apes combat and movement mechanics from “Gears of War,” while cribbing the progression and game flow of the “Diablo” games. Basically, you move like a big beefy soldier, and throw yourself into hordes of enemies as your attacks heal you so you can keep attacking.

It’s too bad, then, that People Can Fly and Square Enix insisted that “Outriders” be an online-only game, despite being a complete product from beginning to end with a rewarding and complex loot system, a full story and a variety of enemies and levels. The developers have stated that in these ways, “Outriders” isn’t a live service game. And yet, after its launch last Thursday, the game was plagued with server problems so bad, the entire service had to be taken down for hours on Friday just to roll people back online.

So yes, this is yet another article asking why this game needs to be online only. It’s an important question, and we need to keep asking it, especially in light of recent discussion around Sony’s decision to discontinue its stores for its older PlayStation platforms.

I’ve been playing by myself for most of my run, because like most people, I’ve had trouble matchmaking with anyone, even when I removed the cross play option. (The developer advised to turn that feature off for now.) But this only speaks to the precariousness of the game’s online-only nature, especially when the game can be enjoyed completely and totally by yourself.

Franchises like “Destiny” seem to exist just fine in an online-only universe. But here’s the rub: “Destiny 2” is now a free-to-play game, so there’s no cover charge for mere “access to software.” A game like “Fortnite” can be online only because it’s free, and it’s a true live service with daily updates. It lives and dies by these updates, so always being connected makes sense. A game like “Fall Guys” make sense for connectivity since it’s primarily a multiplayer game, and it’s also half the price of a standard AAA title.

As it stands, when you pay for “Outriders,” you are only paying for a license to access software. That’s too bad, because even though I’m not quite done with its campaign, I can already tell that “Outriders” is a beefy experience worth owning outright. This isn’t an argument to make the game free-to-play; the studio has mostly delivered on the promise of a complete AAA package.

Square Enix and People Can Fly have worked hard to stabilize the game, and the developer has said it plans to explain in detail what happened last week. I hope that the studio also offers a clear explanation of why the game needs to always be online. If they’re collecting data, consumers have a right to know what’s being collected from our activities.

Despite all the issues, “Outriders” has enjoyed a surprisingly healthy playerbase with more than 100,000 concurrents on Steam at most times. The selling point definitely hasn’t been the game’s sense of style. It’s easy to dismiss “Outriders” as another generic, third-person cover shooter; nothing about its presentation will convince you otherwise. It’s completely derivative.

But People Can Fly keeps its ambitions grounded, and the gameplay runs as smooth as butter. (Again with the food metaphors; it can’t be helped. Every piece of this game goes down like a tasty morsel.) The prominence of chest-high wall covers belies the game’s real ambition as a true successor to “Diablo.” Unlike other looter games, “Outriders” has an expressed focus on dealing damage by using your abilities to heal yourself. Each player chooses three abilities among several to use with freely – save for some cool-downs.

“Outriders” clicks when it pairs this with some stunning level and audio design that give the impression of huge battlefields, even if you’re being funneled down corridors. Dozens of enemies can be firing upon me, moving to my left and right to ensure that I never stay in cover for more than a few seconds. But as the Trickster class, I’m able to target an enemy in an encampment, teleport behind him and punch the back of their head so it explodes in a bloody mess.

Immediately after the punch, I activate a force field that slows time all around me, stopping all incoming bullets like I’m Neo. I swipe toward a huge group of soldiers with a telekinetic knife from my hands, aging them with my time-warping abilities so quickly they turn into skeletons. Meanwhile, the brains of the guy I punched a few seconds ago are only beginning to settle on the ground as my slow-motion force field wanes. What a dynamic and beautiful experience, all packed into 15 seconds or less.

Each class comes with multiple skill trees, all of which can be reassigned at any time. It’s paired with a generous modding system that meaningfully boosts your abilities, enhancing your playstyle in power and sometimes even visual panache. These mods can later be reassigned to more powerful gear. The other classes offer less stylish methods of play, like Devastator which can predictably tank more damage and hit harder, or Technomancer, which becomes a powerful, long-distance soldier in later levels.

Looter games always struggle when it comes to story, and “Outriders” might appear to be a mixed bag. It has a strong, clear premise: Earth is destroyed, so humans run off to another faraway planet called Enoch, only to find that it’s ravaged by a reality-bending storm called the Anomaly. This Anomaly creates superpowered beings such as yourself, while also destroying the precious few resources rescued from Earth. This sparks – of course – a civil war on another planet. After 30 years, you are tasked with finding the source of a mysterious radio signal that was received when the humans first reach Enoch.

The tale unfolds like a buddy road trip across an alien world, complete with quirky memorable characters with distinctive personality traits like “young” and “old.” With inexplicable character motivations and sudden fades to black, the story presentation and writing can feel a bit like James Cameron’s “Avatar” adapted by Tommy Wiseau. Characters say non sequitur lines to each other, and we’re supposed to pretend it all makes sense.

It almost does. The game’s environmental storytelling does most of the heavy lifting. You’ll be taken on a kaleidoscopic journey through wide-open arenas, castles and mud huts. Unlike Square Enix’s other looter attempt in “Avengers,” “Outriders” comes packed at launch with more than a dozen beautiful and different levels to stomp through. Even if the story left me dumbfounded in its writing, I never shook the feeling that I was actually on a journey with a clear goal in mind. That’s something most loot games, even the venerated “Diablo,” have missed.

People Can Fly made something special here.